State of The Heart: Friends-to-Lovers

It’s LaQuette, your friendly erotic romance author. I’m dropping in to talk to you about the friends-to-lovers trope. I may have mentioned previously that when I need some downtime from my writing, I often binge-watch T.V. shows on streaming networks. Well, to my surprise HULU added the entire ten seasons of Smallville to their roster. There was no way your girl was missing an opportunity to gaze at that beautiful specimen of man, Tom Welling. Once I learned of this development, I watched it. All of it. All ten seasons of it.

Good Lord he is so pretty!

I loved the show when Smallville originally aired. However, halfway through the fifth season, I stopped watching it. Why? I became frustrated with the treatment of Allison Mack’s character, Chloe Sullivan. Chloe was Clark’s best friend on the show. She kept and protected his super-powered secret, and loved him not-so-secretly from afar.

Clark followed Lana around Smallville for approximately six seasons. It was annoying the way he pined for her like a love-sick puppy. He tortured himself attempting to please and protect her. In the end, she was never truly satisfied. Subsequently, while he crawled, begging for Lana to accept him as he was, Chloe had his back like the ride-or-die chick that she was.

I’m certain we’re all aware there were only two women Clark Kent loved in the Superman mythology: Lana Lang, as teenager, and Lois Lane, as an adult. However, as a viewer watching sixteen years ago, and even catching up on it again now in the present, I still feel the show missed an opportunity to tap into the awesomeness that was Clark and Chloe. Yes, we know he was only supposed to love Lana and Lois. But in ten years, they couldn’t have allowed Clark and Chloe to be a real couple for at least one season? Especially when we all knew Clark thought about it more than once.

Here’s Clark thinking about it.

He was thinking it about it here too.

I think it’s obvious Clark was certainly thinking about it here as well.

Ultimately, Clark and Chloe together would have been awesome for two reasons: She was devoted to him, and he could trust her with anything. Isn’t that the basis of the most amazing romance you can think of? There was room for conflict in that relationship too. The kind of conflict that comes when you love the person you’re with, but you both know it’s meant to be a right now thing, and not a forever thing. I felt that would have been a decent alternative to the, “If I can’t get my way, then I’m leaving you,” drama they spun every week between Clark and Lana. Genuine conflict, and not the emotional blackmail they used to perpetuate the Clark and Lana situation.

He knew he wanted a taste of Chloe.

The one good thing that came out of binge-watching another TV fave was my need to right that wrong with a friends-to-lovers story of my own creation. The idea is still in its infancy, but trust me, in my version, the friend that’s hanging out in the background is going to get her man. This will be my tribute to the Chloes of the world.

Get your man Chloe!!

If you like the friends-to-lovers trope, here’s your chance to tell me what you like about it. Does it fascinate you the way it does me? Have you ever been in Chloe’s shoes, aching for someone that doesn’t notice you? Or, were you vindicated? Did your secret crush have a crush on you too?

This is LaQuette, your friendly erotic romance author, embracing my crazy…one character at a time.

LaQuette is an erotic, multicultural romance author of M/F and M/M love stories. Her writing style brings intellect to the drama. She often crafts emotionally epic, fantastical tales that are deeply pigmented by reality’s paintbrush. Her novels are filled with a unique mixture of savy, sarcastic, brazen, and unapologetically sexy characters who are confident in their right to appear on the page.
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This bestselling Erotic Romance Author is the 2016 Author of the Year Golden Apple Award Winner, 2015 Swirl Awards Bronze Winner in Romantic Suspense, and 2015 Georgia Romance Writers Maggie Award Finalist in Erotic Romance. LaQuette—a native of Brooklyn, New York—spends her time catering to her three distinct personalities: Wife, Mother, and Educator.

Writing—her escape from everyday madness—has always been a friend and source of comfort. At the age of sixteen she read her first romance novel and realized the genre was missing something: people that looked and lived like her. As a result, her characters and settings are always designed to provide positive representations of people of color and various marginalized communities.

She loves hearing from readers and discussing the crazy characters that are running around in her head causing so much trouble. Contact her on Facebook, Twitter, @LaQuetteLikes, her website, www.NovelsbyLaQuette.com, Amazon, her Facebook group, LaQuette’s Lounge, and via email at LaQuette@NovelsbyLaQuette.com.

Deb, it would have been a nice refreshing break between the canon if they’d run with the friends-to-lovers trope. I think Lucifer will be the only show that looks like it’s going to get this right. Last week the two leads who are friends and partners, kissed for the first time. We didn’t have to wait forever either. We’re only halfway through the second season.

Friend’s to lovers is one of my favorite tropes, too. I just finished reading and reviewing A Passionate Kiss by Sharon C. Cooper which I fell in love with because of this trope (and her awesome writing). The love that grows over time is more romantic to me than that immediate kind. Friends know the good, bad, and ugly of each other and this helps make the relationship deeper and stronger. At least in my opinion.

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